This may be my most favorite book advertisement ever.
Today, Kelly Chripczuk’s book Chicken Scratch: Stories of Love, Risk, and Poultry launches into the world. I had the pleasure of reading an advance copy, and you should go buy it immediately.
Kelly uses humor and her gift as a storyteller to impart wisdom through her experiences of raising and loving chickens. The subsequent softening of the lines between secular and sacred is reminiscent of Kathleen Norris’s The Quotidian Mysteries.
I love this collection of stories. It reminds me of growing up on our farm, even though we didn’t have chickens. It makes me want to encourage my parents to get chickens. The lessons of life and death, our longing to be gathered and brooded over, and finding the extraordinary nestled in the ordinary make frequent appearances in this treasure of a book.
And while reading, I, too, became very attached to the Polish chickens. Like Kelly’s son, I also love them with my whole heart. I wonder what the pet deposit on a pair of Polish hens would be at my apartment…
Get your own copy of Chicken Scratch today. You can also visit Kelly’s blog for a sneak peak, a link-up and the chance to win a signed copy (and also lip balm).
M. Suzanne Terry 
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